The venues for the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarter finals have been finalised by the IFT set to be played Jul. 9-11. Among those, CWLand DR have surprisingly abandoned the clay that served them well in the play-off and first round match by choosing to stage their tie with Austria in Fitzworthingham on an indoor hard surface. This might have been influenced by the expected absence of Randy Smeltz due to an unknown illness. [...]

Meanwhile, West CWLand will host opponents Denmark - provisionally set for Stedingham on an indoor clay surface (the site of their play-off loss to East CWLand). The Danes won their first round match in the Europe/Africa Zone I with a 3-2 win over South Africa. Key player Rasmus Olesen dropped just one set in his two victories, while South Africa won the doubles and the dead rubber match.

>>>>>>WHHOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH>>>>>>Fascist Dictator of the Heath Davis Appreciation SocietySupporting Petone's Finest since the very start - Iain O'Brien
Adam Wheater - Another batsman off the Essex production line
Also Supporting the All Time #1 Batsman of All Time Ever - Jacques Kallis and the much maligned Peter Siddle.

For the record, I made a bit of scheduling bungle this week as the 2nd Round clashes in the Euro/Africa Zone should have taken place including West CWLand vs. Denmark. I'll do these post-Wimbledon instead along with the main quarter finals, and fit in the elimination stuff later on.

Yeah, surprised we went with clay given that we chose where to play. Ox is probably the 2nd or 3rd best clay-courter in the world, and I'm pretty gun on clay, but Davis is a hack on clay (), and Mustard prefers grass IIRC.

East CWLand have started their Davis Cup quarter final in Fitzworthingham with a victory as Jarkko Maxum took an impressive five-set win over Martin Reiter of Austria. The World No. 34 expected a big victory, and looked destined for just that as he dominated the opening set 6-2 with attacking tennis.

The Austrian No. 1 responded strongly, though, and in the second set worked that little bit harder as he looked to push Maxum behind the baseline. With two service breaks, he managed to take the set 6-3 and seemed to have a renewed chance. In an intriguing contest, Maxum responded in turn as Reiter seemed to return to his shell with less assertive tennis. Taking the set 6-2, Maxum shot ahead to 3-0 in the fourth and looked set to take the first point for East CWLand.

But there was another twist as Reiter broke back and managed to steal the fourth set 6-4 after taking six of the last seven games. But that was his last charge as he fell down a break in the fifth, and Maxum this time held onto the slender lead as he secured the 1-0 lead for the East 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Jarkko MAXUM def. Martin REITER, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Wimbledon champion Jefferson Drake had to cut his partying short for this Davis Cup tie as he made his first appearance against World No. 82 Heinz Hainisch. The new World No. 4 was given a raucous ovation in his first appearance on home soil in nearly six months, and seemed to thrive on that as he played flawless tennis in the first set to take it 6-2.

Hainisch, though, fought back strongly as the left-hander began to cause Drake more troubles as he came to the net often and showed some fantastic hands to snatch a break early in the second. Drake, however, stayed camped on the baseline and began to find his range again to break back immediately and then again late in the set to take it 7-5.

Down two-sets to love, Hainisch decided to throw all he had at Drake but couldn't steal the break of serve he needed. Cool under pressure, Drake completed a well-deserved and hard-fought straight sets win to set up a 2-0 lead for the home side.

Needing a good start, Denmark's No. 2 Kasper Buur had the big task of trying to topple World No. 5 Sven Oxenstierna on clay in West CWLand. Ranked No. 51 in the world, it was clear that Buur was up against it right from the start as the French Open finalist took an early break of serve. The Dane struggled to match Oxenstierna in the power stakes as The Ox, who had looked so sharp in practice all week, returned strongly to take the first set 6-2.

Buur needed to change things up, but just could not find enough avenues to attack the top five player. His serve is never dangerous at the best of times, and this wasn't the best of times as he sent down five double faults in the second set. Oxenstierna is well-known as one of the best returners in tennis, and soon took that set 6-3 and then led 5-0 in the third. Buur started to really play his shots then and lucked his way into a break, but by then it was too late as Oxenstierna secured the 1-0 lead for West CWLand in straight sets.

Sven Oxenstierna def. Kasper Buur, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Leading 1-0, the pressure was on Jojo Mustard to consolidate the lead for the home team but the World No. 15 found himself up against World No. 7 Rasmus Olesen. In a high-ranked match for a zonal tie, Mustard looked good early and managed to break the lanky Dane for a 5-3 lead. Unfortunately he could not serve out the set as Olesen took it to a tiebreaker, and drew first blood with a 7-3 breaker for a set-to-love lead.

Then the former French Open quarter finalist kicked it up a notch as he played inspired tennis. After looked anything but inspired in his fourth round loss at Wimbledon, he cracked three times as many winners as Olesen in the second and third sets to completely take the Dane's staying power out of the match. The fourth set was much closer, but at 5-5 Mustard got the decisive break to move ahead 6-5. This time he didn't falter; serving out the match on his third match point in four sets to give the West a 2-0 lead.